“Pool!”
by Jeanne
That was the simlutaneous cry of my kid relatives, who were all running from the cottage to the swimming pool the afternoon we got to the beach resort. I felt the urge to join right in with their enthusiastic surge to the pool, but hey, I outgrew that stage of life. Besides, they didn’t even take the time to change into their swimwear!
My aunts, uncles, and parents chose a nice place to go to; it had a pool, park, restaurant, and lots of huge cottages. All right within shouting distance of the beach, though the pool was a healthy three-minute walk from the cottage where we’d be staying at. I took the time to change into my swimsuit before I headed out to the pool where everyone was at.
All the older people were at poolside, just adoring Paula, playing with and baby-talking to her. Ian was in the pool, playfully dragging Anna into the crystal clear water. I suddenly felt the urge to spend some time with Paula, and I made my way over to where she was. I took Paula from my dad, and I guess the adults thought their time with Paula was done, for now, and they went back to the cottage. I was alone with Paula!
That warm feeling of love overcame me again as Paula gurgled and squirmed in my arms. So much so, that I told Paula of my most intimate feeling …”Oh Paula, how I wish I was your mother”
by Ian
I’ll never forget hearing those words. After Anna went to the cottage to get a baby bottle for Paula, I saw that Jeanne was alone with Paula. I felt sorry for Jeanne that she hadn’t had a chance to swim yet, so I got out of the water and went to take Paula from her. Then I heard Jeanne saying she wishes she were Paula’s mother, and, I just stopped in my tracks, paralyzed by what I heard. Confusion gripped me. What did she mean by that? Did she have feelings for me? How could she even think of loving someone married to her cousin? I calmed myself after a few seconds, and went up behind Jeanne and said: “Okay Jeanne, I’ll take Paula so you can swim”
by Jeanne
Oh god! Did Ian hear was I was saying to Paula? How it would crush me if he heard, and even worse, if he told anyone in the family about it! I felt a bit faint, but I managed to give Ian Paula and a smile. I hoped he didn’t hear what I said! I then turned to look at the pool.
The pool seemed so full of humanity at the time, so I decided the check out the beach, which wasn’t too far a walk away from the pool. I got one good luck at the ocean water to realize it wasn’t worth taking a chance on surviving in it. Practically jet black in color! I noticed that I wasn’t the only one disgusted at the water quality, there was a girl who also appeared to have plans of swimming in the ocean water. I just smiled at her, and pointed at the ocean with a “thumbs-down” sign. She laughed, and came over to talk to me… “Hi, my name is Amanda. Is this the beach or a sewer?”
Well, the Philippine island of Luzon seems to have too many dirty beaches, from what I’ve seen/heard, but Amanda seemed to be oblivious to this well-known factoid, so, I had to wonder where she was from. “I’m Jeanne, are you from here?” She said “I’m actually a filipino-american, and this is my first-ever visit to the country”. Ah, so that’s it… well, she seemed pretty cool and all, so I struck up some conversation while we walked to the decidedly cleaner waters of the swimming pool.
I learned from Amanda that she was a year younger than me, her family was staying at the resort until dawn tomorrow, and they were touring the entire island, or at least most of it. She learned that I was with all of my relatives for a two day beach outing. When we got to the pool, we both dove in nearly simultaneously. It took me less than a couple of seconds for my head to find someone’s butt underwater, which happened to be Peter’s. It was still too crowded for me, and one look at Amanda gave me the impression that she felt likewise.
“Let’s just sit and watch for a while?”
Amanda agreed to my suggestion, so we got out of the water and did just that. I looked for Ian, and found him teaching Lynn how to backstroke. At that point, I was just admiring his kindness for taking the time to help my sister, and I then yearned to be in Lynn’s place. I guess it was really obvious on my face, because Amanda blurted out to me… “Hey, is he your boyfriend?”
Although I was hit by the temptation to brag that Ian was indeed my beau (and just hope she wouldn’t go to him and ask!), I told her that he wasn’t, that Ian was my cousin. I could tell from the look on her face, though, that she didn’t believe me. She almost immediately proposed playing a game of truth-or-dare. “I don’t know”, was my answer, I thought it seemed a bit scary to play such a game with someone I don’t really know yet. Then she suggested “How about if I got my sister and you got some of your cousins to play. Would you?”
Sounded “safer” to me, so I agreed, and dragged my cousins Mia (younger than me by a year) and Cheryl (two years older than I) out of the pool. Amanda left the pool and came back with Tanya. During the formality of introducing everyone to each other, I found out that Tanya is three years younger than me. We saw a dirty old soda bottle nearby, and Amanda rinsed it inside-out. We sat ourselves down in a circle, and on the first spin of the bottle, it stopped at me. I chose “truth”, and Amanda, without waiting for anyone else, asked the question: “Do you love Ian?”
Mia and Cheryl couldn’t stop themselves from giggling! I could just kill them right where they sat! I was backed into a corner, and there was no real way out of it. I could lie, but Mia and Cheryl, old experiences veterans at this game, would have nothing to do with helping me out of this situation. After all, I helped do it to each of them before! So, I reluctantly said “Yes, I do love Ian”. I saw what looked like a sly grin on Amanda’s face, I guess it was her unspoken statement that she found out about my “secret”.
For the next 30 minutes or so, we were finding out about some juicy details about each other’s personal/love lives, because no one was opting for “dares”. I found out that Mia was secretly seeing a guy her parents don’t approve of, Cheryl has a crush on a classmate of mines, Tanya never had a boyfriend before, and Amanda sometimes likes “showing off” her body when the situation is right.
We were getting a bit tired of hearing those things, although no one was being courageous enough to take on a dare. Finally, Amanda said “This is bull! How about if this last spin, the person has to take the dare?” We all agreed, and the bottle went on the suspense-filled last spin. It pointed right at… the space exactly halfway between me and Amanda! Sometimes there’s a meeting of heads when this happens, and this was no exception.
The (lucky) three talked it over, and they asked if we’d prefer deciding it amongst ourselves, or if both of us would accept the presently unspecified dare. Amanda came right out and said “Me and Jeanne should contest it in whatever way you say, but the winner decides the dare”. I really didn’t have an opinion either way, so I said I agreed. So, they went back into conference, and Amanda yelled to them “Hope you think of something really kinky! Not too simple, now!” Well, when they did tell us what we had to do, you could call it “kinky”. Or better yet, totally insane!
“Here’s what you have to do…”
They started out by saying the “contest” was a combination of ideas from all each of them. These were the specifics of our challenge…
First we were supposed to stand to the door of the men’s shower/bathroom. We would wait for a signal from them, then we would enter. This part of the challenge had to have come from Mia, she liked making dares of guys go into women’s restrooms and girls into the men’s room. Upon going into the men’s room, we would have to take off our swimsuits! This was probably Tanya’s idea, seeing as how none of my cousins ever made dares involving nudity, and well, Amanda did mention she was the type. Luckily, bringing a towel for ourselves was optional, which I did without any second thoughts.
I wondered if Amanda was in the mood to show us just how much of an exhibitionist she was, but apparently she wasn’t going to do that now, she grabbed her towel. The final part of the challenge? After undressing ourselves in the men’s room, the winner would be the first girl to get back to them, poolside. Cheryl likes dares that made people run around like fools, and this would probably be the mother of them all, with the two of us dressed only with towels, or possibly even less.
Amanda said “Okay, I’m ready! Let’s go!”, being the picture of composure. I just took a deep breath, and hoped I wouldn’t lose, or make a fool of myself. So, I gathered myself a bit, looked to see if Ian was around at the pool area, which he wasn’t (and I could only wonder if he was in the bathroom), and we walked over to our position near the door of the restroom. We waited there for about 5 minutes, and I felt very nervous just standing there waiting, to say the least. I realized what they were doing: they were waiting for someone to be in the men’s room when we had to undress.
The thought of strangling all three of them came to my mind when suddenly I heard some footsteps… and saw someone walk out the men’s room door, without noticing that Amanda and I was there. I took a good look at the guy walking away, rubbing his face in a towel, that body… it was Ian! He probably just finished taking a shower and was heading back to the cottage. I took a look at the girls and they simultaneously hit their foreheads and gave me some sign language expressing their regret that they didn’t make us go in a little earlier. Then a group of four boys, two seemed like elementary school age, the other two looked like to be around our age, walked towards and into the men’s room. Smiling like chesire cats, the three girls yelled: “Go!”
It seemed like Amanda had changed her mind about the challenge: she didn’t enter right away. I did, and I saw the boys, 1 of them was “manning” a urinal, the others were at the showers. I just walked in there pretending it was the ladies room, and found an empty toilet stall to undress in. The guy at the urinal said something I didn’t comprehend while I was going to the stall. That’s how nervous I was! While I was undressing, I was wondering if Amanda chickened out, when I heard one of the guys say “Hey, there’s another girl in here!” Then, they starting cheering and saying “Take it off, girl! Let’s see it!”
Apparently, 1) Amanda didn’t chicken out, and 2) she was undressing right in the middle of the men’s room, in front of those boys! Once I hastily wrapped the towel around my body, I grabbed my suit and got out of the stall, and I guess those boys were too busy watching Amanda’s strip show to notice the towel-clad me. She still hadn’t quite gotten out of her swimsuit, though her boobs were exposed, and I could almost see her bare sexuality. I walked out of there as fast as I could, what with having to hold the towel, and at the moment it was an arduous task to simply keep the towel from falling.
I then got out of the men’s room, and was walking very briskly to the girls. The girls were whipping up quite a scene, because the whole time they were yelling and screaming, which led everyone else around to be curious as to what was going on. I felt the stare of about thirty sets of eyes on me once I stepped out, and thank god Ian’s wasn’t one of them.
A few seconds after I exited the restroom, I heard a very loud “No!!!” in back of me. I quickly turned to see that Amanda somehow had her towel snagged by the door. The boys from the restroom were right beside her, and smiling like they won the lottery. I thought to myself, “Poor girl, and lucky me!” Not only was she behind in the race and stuck, but all those eyes focused on her now. I got back to the task of speedwalking to win the challenge.
I was just around ten steps away from the girls when I was startled by a naked girl sprinting like an olympian right past me and towards the girls. Needless to say, Amanda beat me. Instead of celebrating her victory though, she grabbed some towels and covered herself up real quick, with all those people staring at her, and me. I was in shock! I had it won, til she ran by me in all her nakedness. Amanda wasted no time in telling me what her dare for me was, and she said I no choice but to accept it: “Since I had to give everyone here a peepshow in order to beat you, I think it’s only fair that you have to… “Skinny dip!”
“Oh no!” I thought to myself. What have I gotten myself into this time? I asked her “When do I have to do the skinny-dip?” Amanda thought it over for a few minutes, then replied “You can either do it now, in front of all these people, just a quick dive in and jump out of the pool totally bare. Or you could do it early tomorrow morning before my family leaves, but you’ll have to do 10 minutes of nude swimming”.
It was a no-brainer for me: no way was I going to skinny dip in front of all those people, some of which were my cousins who would never let me live it down! I asked what time, she said anytime between five to six in the morning, as long as she was present to witness me doing the dare.
I was very tense with nervous energy that night, and I kept wondering how it was going to be. Apparently Cheryl and Mia noticed my worry, and told me that they won’t let a word of my dare go around, and they wouldn’t come to the pool to watch tomorrow, if I felt better that way. I appreciated their concern and consideration, and told them thanks for making me feel better.
Everyone else was deep asleep when the partying and eating ended at around midnight. I tried to go to sleep as well, but I couldn’t. After an hour of unsuccessfully forcing myself to sleep, I looked around and saw Ian, sleeping on a floor mat with Anna and Paula nearby. I crept over to Ian, and lay there beside him. That really made me forget about my worries for the rest of the night, for I could only think of how I was sleeping “with” Ian for the first time.
At this point in time, I felt that I still loved him more than anyone else, save my parents and siblings. But I was confused, by the situation he was in, being married and a father and all, and how impossible it was to have him on moral terms. Yet, everything else about “us” seemed so right, so nice, and very beautiful. That was my final thought as I drifted off to sleep…
…and woke up, at around a quarter past five in the morning. Everyone in the cottage was still sound asleep. Good! At the very least, I wouldn’t worry about a cousin, aunt, uncle, or any other relative catching me naked in the pool. I quietly made my way to the cottage bathroom to change into my swimsuit, although looking back, that was done out of habit. Who goes to the pool to swim in her dry-land clothes?
After changing, I tiptoed my way out of the cottage. Halfway to the pool, I looked back to make sure no one was following me. I was half-expecting to see Mia or Cheryl out to give me encouragement, but no one was going out. They were all probably exhausted from yesterday’s activities.
“Good morning!”
by Ian
Out of habit, I always greet whoever’s around “Good morning” because when I wake up, there’s always someone awake before I am. Not on this morning, I suppose. Aside from greeting myself like that, I made sure I wouldn’t wake up anyone on my way to watch the sunrise from the beach. I tried getting Anna and Paula to come, but Anna wouldn’t budge. I’d just have go alone…
“Where is she? She’d better get here soon!”
by Jeanne
I got to the pool, and looked around for Amanda. No one in sight at all. I hoped she’d get there before anyone else did, or else I’d really be upset. After five minutes of anxious waiting, I finally saw Amanda walking towards the pool. I dived right in, impatient to get my body temperature adjusted to the (very!) cold pool water and get the ten minutes over with! She got to the pool, dressed like someone going somewhere special, and blurted out…
“Hello Jeanne, what’s with the swimsuit? That’s a nice touch, but I believe you’re supposed to take it off!”
She clearly enjoyed the moment, that’s for sure. I just said “Hey, you didn’t say anything about me having to dive into the pool bare, now did you?” She just gave me a sarcastic frown, while I nervously took my swimsuit off in neck-high pool water. My body just kind of nervously shivered for a while, under the combination of cold water totally all over me, and my first exhibitionist experience.
Amanda laughed at my obvious distress, and said “Hey, don’t worry, you look very sexy like that. Maybe you should just put your swimsuit on the deck, and do your swimming thing now.” So, I just threw my suit onto one of the pool decks, and starting swimming around. “Are you timing this?” I asked, and she just pointed me her watch and said “Remember, it’s swim around, not stand and cover yourself there”. Then, I saw that someone else had come to watch my skinny dip…
“Wow, what a view!”
by Ian
It really blew my mind away. Waking up early in the morning, and this was what I got to see! It was just peeking over the water surface, but wow, it really turned on my senses, big time. I was caught totally off guard by what I was witnessing. I had never seen this kind of thing with my own eyes before, and now, I was glad I woke up early to see it!
Folks, if you ever get a chance to watch the sun rise, don’t miss out on it! I was just sitting alone on the beach thinking it was too bad Anna and Paula weren’t there on the beach to see those first rays of light making their way over the water and the horizon. I admired the scene for a few more minutes, then would go on to the next phase of what I planned to do early that morning…
“Hi Jeanne, you look totally fabulous!”
by Jeanne
I kind of expected this to happen: Tanya had come to watch me as well. Better just concentrate on swimming, and staying in deeper water levels. So, I just swam around some more, making extra effort to keep my waist well below water surface. Every time I took a look, the two sisters were just staring and smiling. At about the eight or nine minute level of my ordeal, I noticed that Tanya had left the pool area, and Amanda was still there, glancing at her watch. “Ten minutes yet?” I asked, and Amanda replied, “Little more than one more to go, don’t worry, me and my family’s packed and just about to leave”.
I actually had gotten a bit used to swimming around naked with Amanda there, and thought of doing something wild near the end of my ten minute swim. I swam over to the three foot high water level, stood upright, and did a trick that Ian taught me: I did a handstand, and you can guess which parts of me were totally exposed in the cool morning air at that moment.
After I accomplished the feat, I looked over at Amanda and she gave me a friendly smile and said “Your time’s up. That wasn’t so bad now, was it?” I jokingly said “Hey, I don’t want to put on my clothes anymore”. Amanda laughed and said “Well, that’s up to you. I hear my dad yelling for me to go, so, you take care of yourself, Jeanne!” I took a brief moment, thinking to myself how funny and weird this all was, and I swam over to where I threw my swimsuit, to put it on, and tell Cheryl and Mia about how fun this all was. I was kind of in a dreamy state of mind at that point when I said…
“Where’d my swimsuit go?!”
I snapped out of my dreamlike “trance” and frantically looked all over the pool deck areas for my swimsuit. I yelled for Amanda to come over there and help me find it. She came running back, and from the look on my face, she knew what was wrong. “Damn, it’s Tanya’s doing. She did stuff like this to me all the time before, that’s how I started becoming an exhibitionist”. She ran all around the pool looking for it, but no luck. She then said “Sorry Jeanne, I have to go now! I’m delaying their plans already as it is.”
She ran off to the nearby parking lot, and I was speechless. I’d be left alone naked in the pool, and someone could come to swim at any moment. That moment was coming very soon: I saw a small group of men and women, walking over to the pool from the parking lot area. Apparently, they arrived at the resort just now, and would probably be at the pool any minute now. I was petrified, until, like a ray of light out of darkness, Ian appeared, and was about to jump into the pool!
“Watch out!”
by Ian
I had planned to get some pool time all by myself, but I saw that someone beat me to the pool. Jeanne was standing in the water at the other end of the pool from where I was, and I always caution my friends whenever I dive into pools, no matter how far they are, for I always seem to create big water splashes. I threw my shirt off, and I dived right in, and felt the rush of icy-cold water down my spine.
I couldn’t see a thing in that foggy water, which probably meant they don’t keep the pumps running overnight. I shivered a bit at the initial temperature shock, then I just surfaced to get my bearings straight. I looked over to Jeanne, and she was still standing there, just watching me, and giving me a nervous, small smile…
“Oh god, he saw me from underwater!”
by Jeanne
My heart was beating a hundred times a second. I trembled when he just dove in headfirst like that, he’d see way more in that pool water than he thought he would! When he reached surface, he looked at me, and I just gave him a facial expression, like saying “Hi, did you like what you saw?” Then he started swimming towards me, with his head above water. I felt increasingly nervous with each stroke that took him closer to me…
He stopped right in front to me, and said “Hi Jeanne, you’re pretty early today!” All I could say was “Yeah, I am”, I looked at him and waited for him to say something else. I took a peek to check where the incoming group of strangers were, and spotted them exiting the mens and ladies rooms. Apparently, they finished changing into swimwear and were heading this way now!
I turned my attention back to Ian, and he was looking at what I was glancing at, and said “Hey, those older people are gonna swim. Want to jump out of the pool and head back to the cottage now?” I was surprised at how he could even suggest something like that, and I impatiently blurted out: “How can I get out of the pool if I’m not wearing anything!?”
by Ian
I was very shocked to hear her say that, to say the least. I impulsively reacted to her statement by checking to see if she was kidding or not, and indeed, I saw that she had not a stitch of clothing on her body. I then embarrassingly looked back at her face, and she just gave me a small, weak smile. I asked her why she decided to skinny dip at such a bad time, and she said… “Long story, I’d tell you now, but I have another problem. Those people are gonna be hitting the pool any second now!”
by Jeanne
From where those strangers were at poolside, I doubt that they could make out much of what me and Ian were fussing about. I thought, if Ian the expert swimmer couldn’t see me from below because the water was a bit cloudy, then it would disguise my situation, at least temporarily, which would give us more time to think of a way out of this. Until I saw two of the men putting on swim goggles… I then shrieked at Ian… “Think of something!”
by Ian
Okay, this was a very tricky situation. Wherever her clothes were, it probably wasn’t nearby. She was worried about the spectacle she would create if those strangers saw her like that. Hastily brainstorming for possible solutions, I thought of going to the cottage to get her clothes. Too risky, it would leave her totally exposed for too long a period of time.
The idea of just staying with her until someone we knew came long seemed good until I realized there’s no telling when someone would finally wake up back at the cottage. It could convievably be anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour before anyone would wake up and come around to the pool. Then, a third idea came to mind. I looked to see where I had tossed my shirt aside, and it was still there, at the deck area opposite of where we were. It was the best option I could come up with, so I decided to go with it. I just told Jeanne…
© Jerome Balquilar